For years, pathogens’ resistance to antibiotics has put them one step ahead of researchers, which is causing a public health crisis, according to University Distinguished Professor Kim Lewis. But in new research, Lewis and his colleagues present a newly discovered antibiotic that eliminates pathogens without encountering any detectable resistance—a finding that challenges long-held scientific beliefs and holds great promise for treating chronic infections like tuberculosis and those caused by MRSA.
The research, which is making headlines around the world, was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Northeastern researchers’ pioneering work to develop a novel method for growing uncultured bacteria led to the discovery of the antibiotic, called teixobactin, and Lewis’ lab played a key role in analyzing and testing the compound for resistance from pathogens. Lewis, who is the paper’s lead author, said this marks the first discovery of an antibiotic to which resistance by mutations of pathogens have not been identified.
Lewis and Northeastern biology professor Slava Epstein co-authored the paper with colleagues from the University of Bonn in Germany, NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Selcia Limited in the United Kingdom.
The research team says teixobactin’s discovery presents a promising new opportunity to treat chronic infections caused by staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, that are highly resistant to antibiotics, as well as tuberculosis, which involves a combination of therapies with negative side effects.
The screening of soil microorganisms has produced most antibiotics, but only 1 percent of them will grow in the lab, and this limited resource was overmined in the 1960s, Lewis explained. He and Epstein spent years seeking to address this problem by tapping into a new source of antibiotics beyond those created by synthetic means: uncultured bacteria, which make up 99 percent of all species in external environments. They developed a novel method for growing uncultured bacteria in their natural environment, which led to the founding of NovoBiotic. Their approach involves the iChip, a miniature device Epstein’s team created that can isolate and help grow single cells in their natural environment and thereby provides researchers with much improved access to uncultured bacteria. NovoBiotic has since assembled about 50,000 strains of uncultured bacteria and discovered 25 new antibiotics, of which teixobactin is the latest and most interesting, Lewis said.
The antibiotic was discovered during a routine screening for antimicrobial material using this method. Lewis then tested the compound for resistance development and did not find mutant MRSA or Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to teixobactin, which was found to block several different targets in the cell wall synthesis pathway.
“Our impression is that nature produced a compound that evolved to be free of resistance,” Lewis said. “This challenges the dogma that we’ve operated under that bacteria will always develop resistance. Well, maybe not in this case.”
Gerard Wright, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University and who was not involved in this research, examined the team’s work in a separate article for Nature published in concert with the new research paper. In his article, Wright noted that while it remains to be seen whether other mechanisms for resistance against teixobactin exist in the environment, the team’s work could lead to identifying “other ‘resistance-light’ antibiotics.”
“(The researchers’) work offers hope that innovation and creativity can combine to solve the antibiotics crisis,” Wright wrote.
Going forward, the research team hopes to develop teixobactin into a drug.
In 2013, Lewis revealed groundbreaking research in a separate paper published by Nature that presented a novel approach to treat and eliminate MRSA—the so-called “superbug” that infects 1 million Americans annually. Lewis and his team discovered a way to destroy the dormant persister cells, which are key to the success of chronic infections caused by MRSA.
Lewis said this latest research lays new ground to advance his innovative work on treating MRSA and other chronic infections.
Wow! Awesome prospect. Looking forward to reading the paper they published.
Sidenote: A couple of times in the article you typed “MSRA” instead of “MRSA.” Pretty insignificant but I figured I’d let you know.
Cheers!
Interesting article, but this compound is at least 3–4 years behind another similar antibiotic that I haven’t seen get the attention it deserves. The one I’m talking about just finished Phase 2B trials, was granted QIDP status under the GAIN act, and has had results that match or surpass Daptomycin’s 7 day treatment either as a 3 day or as a 1 day course of treatment! Even better, testing indicates that bacterial resistance is extremely unlikely to develop. The company is Cellceutix, and one of their leading drugs in development, Brilacidin, also attacks the bacteria cell walls. Right now, it’s going into Phase 3 for severe skin infections, such as MRSA and other resistant superbugs. What to know about it: attacks bacterial cell walls, single dose treatment has proven very effective with minimal drug-related side effects, works just like host defense proteins. It’s part of a new class of antibiotics called Defensin Mimetics. Bacteria would need to evolve an entire new cell wall structure to develop immunity, similarly to Teixobactin, only this drug is a lot further along in the approval process! Also, Cellceutix has developed a room-temperature stable compound and are going to start a Phase 2 trial on Diabetic Foot Ulcers shortly! You can Google it and check out some of the company’s press releases, including published results! This research is the tip of the iceberg!
This is incredible! The implications of such a discovery and the iChip can change so many things.
Can wait to read the full article.
The power of thinking “why not try” rather than “we can’t do that”… At last a new way of investigating the microbiological world is tested and almost immediately proves to have immense potential value.
They are using essential oils in diffusers in some UK hospitals and it kills MRSA bugs in the air in wards. Many e. oils are antiviral and antibacterial but cannot be patented. Nature always knows best and supplies all we need!
Perhaps I am mistaken, but any factor killing a pathogen creates evolutionary pressure to evolve resistant mutants. Why would it be any different in this case? Perhaps teixobactin is very effective right now, but I suspect that a few decades down the road we’ll come back to square one…
Please let me know if there a cure for MRSA I have about six mouth before they take my right leg. If it gets gangreen in it may be sooner? Please Help.